Finally, he discovered wine. The experience with it excited him, he became a wine freak. But the wine world was still analogue back then. The most modern means of communication was the fax machine, because internet access for private individuals cost a small fortune per month. All information was printed on paper: magazines, the first wine guides and books on the subject. But the young digital entrepreneur no longer thought in terms of printed pages. He sought exchange with other wine lovers, was interested in tastings and meetings with other wine maniacs. In 1998, internet access became affordable for everyone, there were browsers and more or less stable connections. And so he did what he did best: He designed and programmed software. Utz rewrote an internet application written for completely different purposes into the first German wine forum in many hours of night work. It hit the spirit of the times: the number of free registrations literally shot through the roof.
